What is Google thinking?

What feature here justifies the price? The compelling feature here is access to the Play Store for media consumption, which seems like it should subsidize the pricing. Meanwhile, the Nexus 7 gets announced with a more advanced SOC and a 1280x800 TOUCHSCREEN for a hundred dollars less. Does not compute!

Also, what's with the name? Did google not realize this was coming out, offering an actually revolutionary and useful experience?

I am going to have so many fun Q parties where all of my friends and family will sit around playing music and watching youtube. This is a bit premature in my opinion. My 14 yr old son would love it but I'm not buying him a Q so he can stream youtube with his friends. They can already do this on his XBox or the GTV. Seems like they should give these away with a Nexus 7 purchase. It's only useful to lock us into using play.

Well, there's a really good article on The Verge all about it. Apparently the pricing is due to being manufactured in the US. Makes sense, actually, and Google seems to have a typically nonchalant attitude about how well it does, describing the whole thing as an experiment. At least they're not crazy.

It still leaves me thinking they should have added more functionality to make it more of a premium device; something that isn't mimicking the mass-produced Foxconn gadgets. But one part of the conference stands out to me. When they were talking about Nexus Q, they said they wanted to make it as hackable as possible. Perhaps some developers will pick this up, or Google will donate a few to the various ROM developers out there, and it'll turn into something awesome.

At $300, I still doubt it, but hopefully it will avoid being so much of a bust that it doesn't work as a proof of concept. Definitely would love to see more companies trying out this model.

It's an interesting concept but I had two problems with it. One was price, which is hard for me to get over since I already have a GTV. The second is the chaos that will no doubt ensue at any party where this is being used. I jumped on the N7 without thinking but the Q is something I'll have to sit back and watch.

It needs hardware-agnostic display mirroring. If it could mirror the display of any android device I own, then I would seriously consider it. Since it only does media from the Play store, then no, I'll pass.

I'd rather see the functionality packaged into the Nexus 7/Jelly Bean and offer a $50-$100 dock for the Nexus 7 that includes an audio amplifier and the same connections that the Nexus Q offers. You'd end up with way more capability for the same price. The Nexus Q should be offered for less than $100, and have access to all the same apps as the tablets to be competitive.

However, since it is running Ice Cream Sandwich, I bet somebody will add those capabilities to other devices...

When the Iphone came out people had these same thoughts, well see whos laughing when it turns out to be a good idea.

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When DiVX came out (the "self-destructing" proprietary rental DVD concept) people had the same thoughts. We'll see who's laughing when the Q turns into an amazing failure.

If Google intends for this to be it's own version of Sonos, and is trying to get into the music scene to compete with iTunes, then maybe it'll be what they consider a success. We geeks just were wishing for so much more from the device, or from Google TV.